Loosen this vise on parents, N.Y.: How an unjust state law blocks many capable adults from working with (and properly raising their own) children

I am training director at RISE, an organization that assists parents affected by the child welfare system here in New York City. Here, I work with the city’s Administration for Children’s Services and other agencies to improve their practice with families. In that capacity, I not infrequently sit next to top child welfare officials on city and statewide commissions.

Despite my accomplishments, despite my daily work on these issues, I have carried a mark on my record against me for two decades since June 1999, the shadow of an Administration for Children’s Services case opened decades ago. Even though the case has long since been closed, even though my son who was involved is now 22, even though I have successfully raised him and three other children who have never been involved in the system, I continue to be haunted by that record.

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I was accused of applying corporal punishment once. That is all. It led to an investigation, and to my placement on something called the State Child Abuse and Maltreatment Register (SCR).

Because I’m on that registry, I can’t get a job working with children or be a part of my children’s lives at school. I am not even allowed to be a member of the Parent Association, because it would mean being around children as a chaperone for school events and trips.

This year, when my younger son graduated and went on his senior trip to Dorney Park, I couldn’t go with him. He has autism, so I was scared to let him travel so far without me — but I didn’t want to deny him the opportunity to have fun with his classmates. All I could do was keep calling the school staff to make sure he was okay.

All these restrictions are in place because under current law, reports to SCR that have been “indicated” — this is a low standard, not a beyond-a-reasonable-doubt criminal one — remain on the parent’s record for 10 years past the 18th birthday of their youngest child named on the report.

In New York City, more families than ever before are being investigated by child protective services. I have seen how high rates of investigations in certain communities, like mine in the Bronx, affect mostly low-income families of color. Parents in these communities end up with limited job options because these labels exclude them from entire categories of employment. When you consider that nationally, over 70% of cases involve allegations not of abuse but of neglect, which are largely connected to poverty, you have to wonder why this system punishes poor families by limiting their opportunities.

Thankfully, the Legislature has passed a bill that recognizes that one mistake shouldn’t haunt a parent forever. If Gov. Cuomo signs the bill, it will make the SCR process far more fair than it is now.

First, if your case goes to Family Court and a judge decides you didn’t do what you are accused of, your record in the registry would automatically be amended instead of having to separately ask for a fair hearing, as you do now.

Second, it would limit the employment effects of a record to 12 years for less serious allegations.

Perhaps most important, the new law would require that the evidence actually show you mistreated a child before you wind up on that registry by changing the evidentiary standard to the one that’s used in court — and that most states use for these registries.

As frustrating as it is to me to have a record 20 years after I proved to a judge that I could take good care of my son, many other parents never even get a chance to see a judge.

I deserve the chance to be involved in my children’s lives. I deserve the chance to pursue a wide range of job opportunities. So do thousands of mothers and fathers like me.